


Partnership

by Leni



Category: The X-Files
Genre: AUTHOR AU, Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-13 14:24:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9127627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: Mulder is a children's author, Scully is his (long-suffering) agent.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Evil_Little_Dog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/gifts).



> Well, it was about time I got back to writing you a story right before the end of the year! *HUGS ELD*
> 
> Prompt: [The X-Files, Fox Mulder+/Dana Scully, Mulder is a children's author, Scully is his (long-suffering) agent. ](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/779888.html?thread=101254256#t101254256)

After the bookshop closed its doors and the pair of employees left her and Mulder to themselves, Dana finally gave herself permission to melt into the closest available chair.

There was a reason she had sworn off coffee while on a book signing tour with her best client. Adding caffeine to the stress of handling Mulder's meteoric success and the inevitable chaos that accompanied it was the perfect recipe to either a heart attack or a first degree murder.

Not that anyone past fourteen would blame her if she chose the latter.

Mulder was a gift among the peanut crowd. They adored him, firing remarks that mixed their fertile imagination with acute observations of the world from a three-feet-tall point of view, and ended in these intricate questions that any reasonable grown up would fend off with free candy or some other distraction. 

But Mulder actually _answered_ , and answered truly.

Which gave more than one parent reason to rail at him for exposing their tiny, protected young to the truth of the world outside.

At least this time it hadn't come to physical violence.

Mostly because Dana had dived in to settle ruffled feathers, focusing the ire of three mothers onto herself while promising herself to drive her elbow into Mulder's ribs for every time he smirked at the women's accusations.

He should thank her for her restraint.

Her next option was to use his favorite letter opener instead.

Reading her thoughts, Mulder tutted at her. "Killing the goose that lays golden eggs is bad luck, Scully."

Dana glared - mostly because he was right. Her actual choice was to let him go, or at least not renew their contract... for the fourth time. 

"You take advantage because you're my best client," she told him sourly.

Mulder smiled smugly. "Your _only_ client, you mean."

Dana shook her head, but mostly at herself.

Once she had been on the path of a promising career in the publishing world. The agency that had hired her, and that had signed Mulder on before his stories had veered off the traditional lane and careened straight into wild tales with metaphors that skipped right over the head of the grown ups, but which delighted children right and left.

The agency had not been known for embracing new styles. When nudging along the right direction had not worked, they had pushed Dana to take Mulder on despite her protests. Dana had never meant to become the agent for a children's books author, deeming the job far below her ability. 

Their intention had been to serve Mulder with a bucket of ice water, and either force him and his attitude away or have Dana bring him back to toe the line. 

Instead Mulder had convinced her to resign. 

A pair of rebels, the two of them.

"No need to rub it in," Dana said, scowling. "Just keep writing, Mulder, and we'll be fine."

"Oh, there are plenty of stories in here." He tapped his forefinger against his temple. "All the bits I never told Sammy."

Dana tried to smile.

It had taken a year of partnership to learn about Mulder's little sister. The decades-old missing case that had finally been closed as a kidnapping and murder. The body of Samantha Mulder had been found a few weeks before Mulder finished the first draft of what would become a new series.

Samantha had been eight when she disappeared.

She would always be eight years old.

"Good," she said simply. "You write, I make sure people can buy it. That's how we work, Mulder."

Mulder grinned. "You're the best partner I could get, Scully."

Dana thought of the career she could've had. There would be money. Prestige. _Respect_. But would she enjoy it as much?

Yes, sometimes Mulder was insufferable. Dana had stopped counting the time she'd wished to hush him before he angered another set of parents. But the children needed someone who stuck by them, and at the end of the day it was the little ones who clamored for more.

Just tonight the same three women who had protested had bought Mulder's books when faced with the threat of a full-blown tantrum.

Mulder was one-of-a-kind; his work would never be appreciated in the professional, and to the outside world he had dragged Dana down with him.

But the truth was the Dana had been happy to attach herself to his fate.

So she smiled at him, having reminded herself of why she was the epitome of patience in their partnership. "That's right," she said, "and I wouldn't change a thing either."

 

The End  
30/12/16


End file.
